


Fandom Stocking Apology Meme Roundup

by sapphire2309



Category: White Collar
Genre: F/M, Gen, Spoilers for the series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-07
Updated: 2016-03-08
Packaged: 2018-05-26 10:33:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6235183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphire2309/pseuds/sapphire2309
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>These are all the fills for the prompt me meme that I posted as an apology for not doing shit for fandom_stocking. They're tiny because I wasn't really writing when I posted the meme, and now I have so many other ideas that IDK what to do with commentfic prompts XD</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. you will look for me, and i'll be gone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For aragarna, who requested a canon-compliant Peter-centric fic.  
> Title from One Of These Mornings by Moby.

He doesn't forget.

People have assured him repeatedly that as time passes, he'll forget the way Neal walked, the way he lit up when he noticed something no one else could, the way he smiled when he wasn't conning you. 

They're wrong. Neal is everywhere. In the office looking through a file, in the grocery store picking out apples, admiring a painting at that gallery opening El dragged him to two weeks ago.

But those are glimpses out of the corner of his eye, and every time he looks closer, Neal's gone, and an ache somewhere deep in his chest is all that's left behind.


	2. Smile, Sunshine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For kanarek13, who requested a fill for the very lovely picture prompt (that she made) below.
> 
>  

It was a moment of happiness he embraced wholly, lounging in the Burkes' backyard, laughing at Peter's terrible pun about felines (feel-ines) and leaning closer to Satch in the process, barely noticing the flash of the camera as Elizabeth captures the moment. 

And once the day is over, when he reflects on that moment, he realizes that he was nowhere else. That he wasn't worrying, or scared, or weary. Just happy. Just there.

He's missed this feeling.


	3. unfortunate reality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For sherylyn, who requested something Neal-related. I added Rachel, because I'm me.

Neal has rarely called her Rachel.

When he has, it's been to make a point. Never to address her casually. Her name is still Rebecca, in his head. Rachel is the unfortunate reality.

Neal is a creature who survives on hopes and dreams. Very rarely does evidence of it slip out into the real world.

Rachel picks it up as tenderly as a diamond and turns it over curiously in her hand.

When she puts it down, she will have gleaned all the knowledge she can from it.


	4. mama's best boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For caseyf123, who requested anything Neal. Preseries. Features Ellen.

When Neal was a little boy, people started calling him Daniel, which was confusing. That wasn't his name. He was Neal, his papa's little hero, his mama's best boy, but people started calling him Daniel and his papa went away and his mama started looking at the paint on the wall instead of Neal. 

He wants to tell everyone, "That's not my name, my name is Neal," because then maybe his mama and papa will come back, but mama told him not to, and he's his mama's best boy, isn't he? 

One day, he gives in to the urge to start screaming when people won't stop calling him Daniel and his Aunt Kathryn ("Ellen, Danny, I'm your Aunt Ellen") has to carry him out of daycare and give him chocolate milk and break his heart. 

She tells him that being Neal won't bring his papa back. 

For the next whole week, when anyone hands him a piece of paper, he scribbles all over it with black crayon.


	5. never again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For sheenianni, who requested Neal/Sara.

When he first met her, he wasn't ready to be saved. 

See, he hadn't hit rock bottom yet. He hadn't lost the one thing that was most precious to him. 

He lost Kate. That could have been rock bottom without his friends, without his people to form a protective ledge for him, to shield him. But when he loses his friends too...

He comes crawling back a year after he lets them believe him dead, and they embrace him with open arms but there are minuscule shards of ice in the air they breathe, and it's not because of the weather. They need time to undo the grieving they've done, to thaw the air, to embrace him and not remember a cold body lying on a metal gurney.

But Sara isn't used to runaways coming home again. Even though he's done it once before. 

She holds back her tears magnificently when she first sees him, but she is weary. She's only ever had herself and her work to rely on, and she's still building a network of contacts in London. It's hard, thankless work, from which she comes back more tired every day. 

So to have this- this person that she used to trust to a rather great measure (with her heart and her love and the softest parts of her), it's a little too much.

She gives him a verbal lashing and then cries into his chest, whispering "Don't ever leave again," (it's a foolish request, he can't help but run) and stops crying with a hiccough of surprise when he says "Never again." 

She lays a hand upon his jaw, eyes wide with wonder as she watches him surrender to being remade.


	6. Wednesday means tranquillity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For treonb, who requested Mozzie + "I knew they would come".

"I _knew_ it! I knew they would show their faces eventually."

"Mozzie-"

"As you may recall, I _specifically_ told you that when Area 51 no longer had enough space to house extraterrestrials, the Establishment would resort to housing them in the barely habitable boxes otherwise referred to as prison cells!"

"Mozzie." Kate says, as gently as she can. "I didn't see an alien."

"Well, what else could be so urgent that you'd disturb me while I was at Wednesday?"

"Neal's in trouble."

"Oh."


End file.
